Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Has $6.77 Million Position in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 11.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 115,508 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 11,860 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Bruker were worth $6,771,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BRKR. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bruker by 21.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,306,122 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $987,981,000 after buying an additional 2,521,904 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Bruker by 9.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,627,300 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $250,501,000 after acquiring an additional 318,808 shares during the last quarter. RTW Investments LP boosted its holdings in shares of Bruker by 1.1% during the third quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 3,481,119 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $240,406,000 after acquiring an additional 37,024 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Bruker by 10.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,993,468 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $137,702,000 after purchasing an additional 193,580 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in Bruker by 127.8% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,389,537 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $88,666,000 after purchasing an additional 779,549 shares during the last quarter. 79.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Bank of America upped their price objective on Bruker from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Bruker from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Bruker in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $66.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Bruker from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on Bruker from $80.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $74.45.

Insider Transactions at Bruker

In other Bruker news, CEO Frank H. Laukien purchased 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $50.14 per share, for a total transaction of $5,014,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 38,439,563 shares in the company, valued at $1,927,359,688.82. The trade was a 0.26 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 28.30% of the company’s stock.

Bruker Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of BRKR opened at $56.88 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.66. Bruker Co. has a 52-week low of $48.07 and a 52-week high of $94.86. The firm has a market cap of $8.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.35, a PEG ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.17. The business’s fifty day moving average is $57.79 and its 200-day moving average is $61.66.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical research company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.61 by ($0.01). Bruker had a return on equity of 21.52% and a net margin of 9.41%. The business had revenue of $864.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $866.46 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Bruker Co. will post 2.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bruker Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.35%. Bruker’s payout ratio is presently 9.62%.

Bruker Company Profile

Bruker Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and distributes scientific instruments, and analytical and diagnostic solutions in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Bruker Scientific Instruments (BSI) BioSpin, BSI CALID, BSI Nano, and Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies.